Thanks for the commentary everybody. We've been able to have a liberty-minded editorial in almost every single issue of the Old Gold & Black here at Wake Forest so far this semester. I thought it was going to be me constantly trying to get people to write, but once I opened the door, a flood of submissions started coming in, both from members of YAL and also just people on campus who saw the usefulness of the medium, and who hopefully will very soon be members. I agree with Drew, if anyone else out there is on editorial staff at a campus newspaper, I would strongly advise you to get to work on this pronto.

Great article. Last night on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann was complaining about Newt Gingrich's claim that we were heading toward a "political dictatorship" - to which Olbermann responded by citing examples of Gingrich's calls for authoritarian measures such as suspending the 1st amendment to fight terrorism. The fact is they are both right: Gingrich is displaying unbelievable hypocrisy worrying about a "dictatorship" under Obama and not under Bush, but that doesn't mean his concern is invalid. Olbermann's retort claimed that the government was only giving itself authority to seize "failing businesses that threaten the entire economy" (which is about as credible as when Fox News used to defend Bush saying he was only using the NSA to spy on "terrorists"). When Republican friends and family of mine would stick up for Bush aggrandizement of executive power I would always tell them to imagine what they would do if Hillary Clinton had that kind of power. I think Olbermann and other Obamaniacs should think what they would think if John McCain or Sarah Palin claimed the powers that the Obama administration is claiming. I am willing to believe Obama sincerely thinks he is doing the right thing to help the economy but believing in good intentions is not a sufficient protection of our personal and economic liberty as far as I'm concerned.

This DOES work. I've been writing for Florida Gulf Coast University's opinion section for a few months now, and nearly every day that I'm on campus I get a comment from someone about something I've written... especially my article that breifly mentioned concealed carry permits on campus. Sometimes, I open up the paper to my article, fold it back, and leave copies in random places.. benches, bus seats, classroom desks and the like. My editor is graduating next semester, and of the other 6 full time writers, 4 are junior to me, one is graduating, and the other has no interest in filling the editor's position, so I may be looking to sweep in and recruit some liberty-minded students to become columnists.

Indeed, it is a very effective tactic. All chapters should be taking advantage of this small activism idea. It's too simple not too pass up; and, we all know how much more we understand our message more than our opposition!

I've been doing this since November! Libertarians own the opinion section at my college!

That's a simply lovely piece. I couldn't agree more- intelligent, well-reasoned letters to the editor and op-ed pieces are one of our most powerful and effective tools, especially for those of us soldiering along without a YAL chapter behind us. Given the vast amount of talent here, I'd even venture that more than a few of us, like Elliot and myself, are staffers on campus newspapers to boot. And you're right- most campus newspapers, starved for content, will print just about any opinion piece you submit!

Every chapter should do this!